If I Just Breathe
by my1nonlysb
Summary: Lucas is responsible for the brutal murder of his father Dan and both Nathan and an unexpected sidekick are aware of the truth thanks to a surprising confession from the one person Lucas thought he could trust. Leyton, a bit of Brathan.
1. Not So Innocent After All

Lucas liked to think that since murdering his father, he was a better man.

Lucas was dead wrong.

There had been more than one thorough investigations in the murder of Dan Scott. After being brutally ripped apart, Dan's eyes were wide open in shock. It seemed there had not been a struggle. It seemed that Dan had given in to the killer and allowed him to carry on his execution.

Lucas had been surprised to see that.

_Dan picked up his mobile phone. He had waited in apprehension for this moment when he had promised himself to just call Deb. _

_He picked up the phone and typed out a text message._

"_Deb, my darling_

_You probably never want to speak to me again but I have to tell you something. We need to talk. I'm cleaning my house right now so it would be great if you could just swing by anytime_

_Dan"._

_It seemed friendly enough. He pressed the 'send' button and the sent icon appeared. He heard a chair fall upstairs and he froze._

"May we speak with a Mr. Lucas Scott?"

"That would be me. Can I help you, ma'am?" Despite his homicidal needs, Lucas never forgot his manners.

The woman officer held out a badge. "I'm from the police. I have to ask you a few question about the Dan Scott murder case."

"Of course." Lucas stiffened. Were they onto him?

"I understand that you must be extremely traumatized by your father's death. However, if you want to catch the madman who did this to your father, you will just have to answer these questions as truthfully as you can."

"Yes…"

"Did Mr. Scott have any enemies that you knew about?"

"Yes…a Mrs. Karen Roe."

The officer raised her eyebrows. "This Karen Roe is your mother, if I understand correctly?"

"Well, yes. Also, Deb Scott."

"Deb is out. She was the person who found Dan pinned to the wall."

"Oh."

"Anyone else I should investigate?"

"No. That's it."

"Thank you so much. I hope this information helps." She left the house, almost banging into Nathan on his way in.

"Nate, whats up?"

"Don't you 'Nate' me, you son of a bitch. I know what you did. I know you killed my father."

_Dan looked up. He waited a moment, and than relaxed. It must have just been unsteady. His phone made the annoying 'tring' sound that meant he had a message. It was from Deb._

"_Dan,_

_All right then. I'll be there in an hour."_

_Excited as hell, Dan jogged upstairs to get "dressed up"._

"Nathan, how could you say that?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I am going to get you for this." He lunged at Lucas.

Just at that moment, Peyton walked into the room.

"Nathan!" she pulled him off his gasping brother.

"This boy. Your _boyfriend,_" he spat. "Killed Dan Scott. He killed his own father. How can you stand by a guy like that?"

"I will always stand by Lucas." Peyton put her arms around Lucas's neck and hugged him tight.

Nathan just rolled his eyes.

"You killed him. Savagely and brutally. And I will make sure you get exactly what you deserve."

He marched out of the room.

"Bastard." Lucas wiped his bleeding mouth.

"Luke, c'mon. His dad just died." Peyton stroked his hair. "Of course he's gonna be sad."

"Accusing his own brother of killing him? That's really not fair."

"Luke, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Peyton. What is it?" Lucas looked at her seriously.

"Did you kill Dan?"

His silence was all she needed to prove it.

"Oh my God, Lucas. You did"

"Peyton. I was pissed. I was desperate to bring him down. Cut a guy some slack, would you?"

"Lucas, when people are in denial like it sounds like you were, they go and see a counselor. They don't go murdering their own blood."

Peyton stumbled out of the room.


	2. The Unexpected Sidekick

_Dan slipped on his best suit and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked sorry for everything he had done. He couldn't explain his sudden feeling of remorse and forgiveness to his wife but it was right there. He wanted to be a different man. He needed to be a different man. He walked to his dresser and pulled open the drawer containing his gun. He would have to dispose of that. He knew his 'anger management' issues were very serious and he didn't want to kill someone he cared about by accident or on purpose in a fit of rage. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he killed Deb or Nathan._

Lucas punched in Peyton's residence number. He didn't try her cell because he had a feeling she wouldn't answer to a crazy murderer.

"Hello?" It was her father.

"Hey, it's Lucas."

"I'm guessing it's not me you called to talk to."

Lucas chuckled nervously as Larry went to call Peyton.

"Listen, Lucas, I can't be your friend anymore. You killed your father. I can't be associated with someone like that. I'm doing this for myself and my family as well. I guess this is the last time we speak and I'm sorry it had to end this way."

Lucas stared at the phone after she hung up. She hadn't even let him speak!

Almost as soon as he put the phone down, it rang again. He hoped it was Peyton, rethinking her decision.

"Hello?" he said eagerly.

"Lucas," Nathan said boredly.

"Oh, its you. Are you going to accuse me of murdering our father again?"

"No, I already have enough proof." Nathan said airily. "What I called to say is that we're coming to see you."

"Who's we?" Lucas said questioningly.

"Me and the person who's gonna help me with this case. Who's gonna help me bring you down."

"Fine, whatever. Come see me."

About half-an-hour later, the doorbell rung.

"Lucas?" Nathan called. "Me and my partner are freezing our asses off."

Lucas gritted his teeth as he went downstairs.

He swung the door open.

"What the fuck is"

He gaped at Nathan's partner.

"Brooke?!"


	3. Forgive? Sounds Good

_Dan put his tie around his neck and proceeded to fasten it when a hand grabbed it and tightened it around his neck till Dan fell to the floor, unconscious. The figure dragged the comatose man to the other side of the room._

_Hours later, Dan found himself face-to-face with his would-be killer. It was Lucas, his own son._

_Dan was pinned to the wall by enlargened nails stuck cruelly into his wrists and ankles. _

_The pain was extreme and Dan pleaded Lucas for mercy._

"_Lucas, your own father. Please, let me go…"_

"Brookeno. You were my friend. Don't let one silly little break-up break up our whole friendship."

"How dare you!" Brooke stormed up to Lucas. "I gave you everything in the little relationship we had. To me, it meant something. Until you crawled into bed with my best friend! I never forgave you for that, Lucas. And I never will. And it's just too bad you're completely alone in this. You gave your mother's name to the police, Haley moved abroad. And I hate you!"

"Peyton." Lucas said confidently. "Peyton's on my side."

"Peyton," Brooke sneered. "Peyton's the reason we're onto you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Peyton told us you killed your father. Nate here already suspected you so she's not entirely to blame but we can definitely confirm that she's so not on your side."

"What?" Lucas's blood ran cold.

"Yup." Nathan stepped in. "But I won't get into it. It's not important. What's more important is how long they're gonna keep you in jail for. If me 'n' Brooke are lucky, it could be a life sentence."

"Or a death sentence," added Brooke.

"Brooke!" Lucas yelled, frustrated. "How long do you need to get over me cheating on you with Peyton? How can you want me to die just because I broke your heart?"

"I didn't say that!" Brooke said. "Well, not exactly."

"Lucas." Nathan said. "We're gonna leave you to prepare your lame-ass testimony now. Buh-bye."

"But don't bother," Brooke said. "You're gonna lose. And they're gonna put you away for the freaking monster that you are."

With that dramatic note, they left the house and got into Nathan's car.

"_My father?" Lucas screamed, outraged that Dan was trying to imply that his life should be spared simply because he was his father. "You abandoned me at birth. You chose Nathan, you chose Deb, you chose this life and you never let us forget it. You made our life the hellish nightmare it was."_

"_You're going to murder your own blood?" Dan choked out. "Luke, how could you?"_

"_Yes, Dan, I am going to murder my own blood. After all, I __am__ your son." Lucas said cuttingly. "What about Keith? When you held that gun to him and he was begging you for mercy, did you let him go? No, you did not. And I won't let you go either."_

_He plunged the dagger into his father's heart, enjoying every scream of agony he got. _

Brooke sat in the passenger seat, reliving memories of Lucas and herself in her mind, unconsciously crying. At a signal Nathan looked over at her and noticed.

"Brooke, what's up?"

"I can't do this to him. Nate, he isn't a bad person. I don't think he would deliberately hurt me or Dan. I think he's just a misguided human being who gets carried away and when we talked to him today, he looked remorseful. Hell, he looked sorry for killing his father. It almost looked like he was willing to suffer the consequences of the crime in order to justify what he did. Not to us or anyone else. To himself."

When Nathan simply stared at her, she asked indignantly, "What?"

"Whoa, Brooke. Coming from you, that's deep. That's real deep."

"Shut up!" she laughed between her tears. "I'm having a sentimental moment here!"

"I ain't gonna force you to accompany me." Nathan told her matter-of-factly. "And if you don't wanna, it's OK. But I'm gonna advise you to do something. Go see him. Talk to him. Than come back and tell me what side you've decided to be on."

"Okay, Nathan, thank you." She reached over her seat and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She noticed his cheek went very red after that.

"Could you…?"

"Drop you off at Lucas's? Yeah, sure, why not?" he reached his brother's house and opened the passenger door. She got out.

"I'll be right back." She went up the three steps to Lucas's room and banged on the door. When nobody answered, she gathered that he was not home.

"He's out." She told Nathan as she got back in the car. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to go see Peyton. I wanna check up on how she's doing."

"Yeah maybe I should come with you. She has been pretty down lately."

"And who could she possibly wanna see more? Her ex-best friend and her ex-boyfriend?"

Nathan cracked up.

"C'mon, let's go before you laugh so hard you wet yourself."

He ignored her laugh-so-hard-you-wet-yourself comment and started the engine. He drove to Peyton's house.

_Lucas gathered a whole lot of large screws and pinned Dan to the wall, holding him upright so he could see the damage done._

_Did he feel remorse? None at all._

_He gathered his things when he heard a car stop outside and went out through the back window._

Lucas rung Peyton's doorbell. She answered it. When she saw who it was, she hastily begun shutting the door.

Lucas put a hand out and stopped her. "Peyton, talk to me!"

Peyton stopped trying to close the door. "What's there to talk about? You're a lying murderer."

"Okay maybe I'm a murderer but I didn't lie. In fact, as far as I know, I did you no harm."

"Still. It's hard being in the room with someone who can do that to a man, father or no father."

"Peyton, you know me. If it were anyone but Dan, I would not even consider homicide. You can't imagine the kind of things he's done to my family."

He begun to cry, a little bit at first, then a lot, his head resting on Peyton's shoulder for support. She hugged him and gently comforted him and whispered that it would be alright.

He looked up at her. He couldn't resist her. He kissed her.

Brooke got out of the car when they reached Peyton's house.

"I'll go check if she's home." She stopped short when she saw Lucas and Peyton kissing. She stood still on the spot for a second, her mind reeling with anger and betrayal. She went back to the car with a new vengeance.

"What happened? Was she home?" Nathan inquired.

Brooke said simply, "We've got a bastard to bring down."


End file.
